It started as Rutger Zuydervelt, aka Machinefabriek's, request to saxophonist Neil Welch to improvise over a track that he sent to him; on receipt of the track he was so impressed with the details that he created this unexpected and rich work of organized sound from it.

"Rutger Zuydervelt (aka Machinefabriek) sent saxophonist Neil Welch (of duo Bad Luck) a 'backing track' to improvise on, with the idea to keep the electronic part intact as the spine of this new piece. But once he received Neil's recording, things turned out differently. While toying around with the saxophone improvisation, Rutger noticed it was full of fantastic details, and wanted to emphasize these, overlaying various looped parts, with wonderful results. So the original idea went out the window, and it was decided to solely work with Neil's improvisation.

Tides was approached as a continuous stream of sound, maybe comparable to Brian Eno's 'Thursday Afternoon' or 'Neroli', but far less soothing. The 38 minutes on the release can be seen as a chop from an infinite, miasmic flow of melting saxophone phrases."-Confront